Minority, a culturally, ethnically, or racially distinct group that coexists with but is subordinate to a more dominant group. As the term is used in the social sciences, this subordinancy is the chief defining characteristic of a minority group. As such, minority status does not necessarily correlate to population. In some cases one or more so-called minority groups may have a population many times the size of the dominating group, as was the case in South Africa under apartheid (c. 1950–91).

The lack of significant distinguishing characteristics keeps certain groups from being classified as minorities. For instance, while Freemasons subscribe to some beliefs that are different from those of other groups, they lack external behaviours or other features that would distinguish them from the general population and thus cannot be considered a minority. Likewise, a group that is assembled for primarily economic reasons, such as a trade union, is seldom considered a minority. However, some minorities have, by custom or force, come to occupy distinctive economic niches in a society.

Because they are socially separated or segregated from the dominant forces of a society, members of a minority group usually are cut off from a full involvement in the workings of the society and from an equal share in the society’s rewards. Thus, the role of minority groups varies from society to society depending on the structure of the social system and the relative power of the minority group. For instance, the degree of social mobility of a member of a minority group depends on whether the society in which he lives is closed or open. A closed society is one in which an individual’s role and function can theoretically never be changed, as in the traditional Hindu caste system. An open society, on the other hand, allows the individual to change his role and to benefit from corresponding changes in status. Unlike a closed society, which stresses hierarchical cooperation between social groups, an open society permits different social groups to vie for the same resources, so their relations are competitive. In an open society the rank that the individual attains for himself is more important than the ranking of his social group.

Pluralism occurs when one or more minority groups are accepted within the context of a larger society. The dominant forces in such societies typically opt for amity or tolerance for one of two reasons. On the one hand, the dominant majority may see no reason to rid themselves of the minority. On the other hand, there may be political, ideological, or moral impediments to the elimination of a minority, even if it is disliked. For instance, the commercial trade of certain European countries in the 12th and 13th centuries depended on Jewish merchants, a circumstance that (for a time) prevented the anti-Semiticaristocracy and clergy from driving the Jews into exile. Another example of begrudging toleration can be seen in Britain in the 20-year period following 1950, which saw an influx of immigrants from the Caribbean, Pakistan, and India. Many British people did not like these new minority groups, but the nation’s prevailing democratic ideology overcame attempts to eject them.

A minority may disappear from a society via assimilation, a process through which a minority group replaces its traditions with those of the dominant culture. However, complete assimilation is very rare. More frequent is the process of acculturation, in which two or more groups exchange culture traits. A society in which internal groups make a practice of acculturation usually evolves through this inherent give and take, causing the minority culture to become more like the dominant group and the dominant culture to become increasingly eclectic and accepting of difference.

Efforts to forcibly eliminate a minority from a society have ranged from expulsion to mob violence, ethnic cleansing, and genocide. These forms of oppression obviously have immediate and long-term negative effects on those who are victimized. They typically devastate the economic, political, and mental health of the majority population as well. Many examples of minority expulsion exist, as with the British deportation of the French population of Acadia, a group that became known as Cajuns, in 1755. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw widespread mob violence against minorities, including pogroms against Jews (in Russia) and lynchings of blacks, Roman Catholics, immigrants, and others (in the United States; seeKu Klux Klan). The mid-20th-century Holocaust, in which Nazis exterminated more than six million Jews and an equal number of other “undesirables” (notably Roma [Gypsies], Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals), is recognized as the most egregious example of genocide in the modern era. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, ethnic cleansing and genocide in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, The Sudan, and elsewhere provided tragic evidence that the forcible elimination of minorities continued to appeal to some sectors of society.

Hutu refugees departing from a camp at Ngozi May, Burundi, 1995.

Malcolm Linton—Liaison/Getty Images

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The terms minority and majority would seem to be mostly about numbers. A minority can be defined as less than half the population in a society. Therefore African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanic Americans can all be considered minorities in the United States. Realistically, however, minority cannot always be defined by numbers. Being in a minority often can have much more to do with one’s standing in society. The black people of South Africa make up the overwhelming majority of the population. Until 1992 they were, nevertheless, treated as a minority because they were subject to the laws of a white minority and deprived of most civil rights. Females in the United States make up more than half of the population, yet they are often treated as a minority group, as in the legislation that is intended to uphold their civil rights.